Yours Truly Johnny Dollar - "02 the Henderson Matter Part 5" (Old Time Radio)
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar — “The Henderson Matter, Part 5” originally aired December 2, 1955. This concluding installment of the five-part serial is episode 5512, starring Bob Bailey as freelance insurance investigator Johnny Dollar.
In Culver, Montana, Dollar continues probing the death of wealthy cattle rancher George Henderson, who fell from a fourth-floor hotel window. With the insurance claim dependent on whether the death was accidental, suicidal, or criminal, Johnny faces conflicting accounts and mounting resistance in the tight-knit mining-and-ranching town. Written by John Dawson and directed by Jack Johnstone for CBS.
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.
Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:54 Original Broadcast
15:26 Closing
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Speaker 1: The circumstances surrounding wealthy cattle rancher George Henderson's fall from
a fourth floor hotel window have brought insurance investigator Johnny
Dollar to Culver, Montana. On December second, nineteen fifty five,
CBS broadcast the fifth and final chapter of the weekday
serial Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, The Henderson Matter, Part five,
Episode five thousand, five hundred twelve. Bob Bailey stars as Dollar,
the freelance investigator sorting through conflicting accounts in a mining
and ranching town where the insurance claim turns on whether
Henderson's death was accidental, suicidal, or criminal. The serial was
written by John Dawson, the pen name of E. Jack Newman,
and produced and directed by Jack Johnstone and now the
original broadcast from Hollywood.
Speaker 2: It's time now for.
Speaker 3: I have a call for you from Hotford. Go ahead, please, Johnny.
Right here, Connor is a paramount of gestures. Say what
was his wire? Johnny? You're serious about denying liability to
missus Henderson?
Speaker 2: I sure, am. I think it'll bring the whole thing
out in the open.
Speaker 3: This is pretty serious. If you got any concrete of
his death, wasn't accidental?
Speaker 2: Yim might have a copy of the corner's inquest. Concrete
evidence that Missus Henderson lied under oath. She said her
husband was drinking in the morning he died. Everybody here
believed he was a little crocked when he fell out
that hotel window. I've got proof that he didn't have
a drink that morning.
Speaker 3: What proof?
Speaker 2: No bottle in his room, no bottle brought there, nothing.
What do you say.
Speaker 3: Don't make a move, kiddle. I'll get the first.
Speaker 4: Plane tonight and every weekday night. Bob Bailey, in the
Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the Action Packed Expenser
gout America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.
Speaker 2: Ours Truly Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts submitted by special Investigator
Johnny Dollar to Paramount Insurance Adjustice, Hertford, Connecticut. The following
is an accounting of expenditures. During my investigation of the
Henderson matter, Sheriff Holton agreed that there was enough of
a doubt about the circumstances prior to George Henderson's accidental
death to warrant an official re examination of all the facts.
He promised me the police would start an immediate investigation
that was all I needed. I knew missus Henderson would
be requestioned and that the pressure would start to build up.
Fourteen hours later, when Tim Connors arrived in Culver, I
had some pressure on my own.
Speaker 5: Well, Johnny, what Well?
Speaker 2: The best thing we can do now is move in
deny liability on the grounds that the accident is not proved.
Speaker 5: I suppose missus Henderson Seus's all.
Speaker 2: Right letter, then the burden of proving that her husband's
death was accidental would be on her. Look, Tim, contrary
to her testimony under oath, Henderson didn't have a drink
that morning.
Speaker 5: He died, all right. She made a mistake. He had
a heart attack, got dizzy and tumbled out of the window.
Speaker 2: He wasn't drunk. Oh, I don't talk nonsense to him.
Listen to me. Missus Henderson was ready for the Cornish
jury a couple of days ago, and she was ready
for my questions when I saw her yesterday. The only
one she wasn't ready for was you. A few days
ago when you phoned a long distance you said she
hung up on you. Well, she half apologized to me
for that, but it was because she couldn't think of
anything to say.
Speaker 5: Well, maybe you're right. I suppose he did die accidentally,
and suppose it is a just insurance.
Speaker 2: I tell you it isn't the fact that she made
a mistake testifying about him having a drink.
Speaker 5: And Johnny, do you have anything?
Speaker 2: Ask three things, instinct, experience, and statistics falling. Henderson's a
young woman. She married a wealthy older man. With him
out of the way, she has all his money and
all her youth.
Speaker 5: All right, I'm going to phone the company soon as
I can find a phone.
Speaker 2: Tell him I'm working for evidence, and the best way
to get it is to bring missus Henderson out in
the open. File a complaint against her. What charge? Suspected murder?
Speaker 5: Oh no, Johnny, that get us all kinds of trouble.
Speaker 2: Remember the drink, Tim Henderson didn't have the drink.
Speaker 5: I will have to have more than that. I'm sorry, Johnny, all.
Speaker 2: Right, I'll get you more. An hour later, I was
with Sheriff Holten comparing notes. He reported that after questioning
Missus Henderson, she admitted she might have been mistaken about
Henderson drinking the morning of his death. She wasn't sure,
but if Holton said what we both were thinking.
Speaker 6: He went in front of the corners during gave a
misleading impressions. Hun made us think that George was drunk
and stumbled out the window. We better find out who
helped her pull this off. Sheriff Holton had every man
in his office working on the case.
Speaker 2: By then. It was a long, tedious job of combing
over everything at Pauline Henderson's background to find a possible accomplice.
About five in the afternoon, I drove to the Henderson
ranch with Holton. Missus Henderson was out, but we interviewed
one of the servants.
Speaker 7: That's right, sir, once twice a week.
Speaker 8: Uh, you know where she drove to on these trips.
I have no idea. Missus Henderson get up early in
the morning, be gone all day.
Speaker 2: How do you know she went out of town?
Speaker 8: Well, generally take a small suitcase with her change your clothes.
You don't take those when you're visiting a friend in town.
Speaker 5: Do you tell us what car she'd use on these trips?
Speaker 8: Cadillac always come back covered with mud and ice. Almyst
have to be washed up. Mister Henderson used to complain about.
Speaker 2: That about the car being dirty.
Speaker 7: About the trips.
Speaker 8: Mostly he and Missus Henderson had some pretty good arguments
about him.
Speaker 7: He'd say, Missus Henderson shouldn't visit that man.
Speaker 2: What man?
Speaker 7: Just that man? I never knew who it was. They
argued about.
Speaker 2: You've known missus Henderson quite a.
Speaker 8: Long time, yes, sir nor when she was a little girl,
when she first came here. So I grow up, go
away to school, go away to Europe, come back a
little more grown up, a little different every time.
Speaker 2: Were you surprised when mister Henderson married her?
Speaker 7: Well? No, well, yes guess I.
Speaker 2: Was because she was so much younger.
Speaker 7: Not that so much.
Speaker 8: I mean, well, mister Henderson he had something about the
plains and cattle mountains about him. When he moved it
was this big zal them things. Missus Henderson is different.
Speaker 2: She didn't fit in here. Is that what you're trying
to say.
Speaker 7: I think she fit not like him.
Speaker 8: Though before they were married they were sort of like
good friends. I mean they'd ride horses and go hunting
and laugh and talk about different things. Missus Henderson she
traveled Europe, saw some many things and places in the world.
She fit here, but then she didn't belong here. I
feel awful about mister Henderson's being dead. There was anything
wrong with the way he died. I'd like to be fixed.
Missus Henderson probably fire me for talking like this, but
I don't care. This house isn't the same no more.
Speaker 2: By the time we got back into town, Sheriff Holton's
boys had discovered the names of three men who had
been seen at various places around Culver and the company
of Missus Henderson.
Speaker 6: Rod Tyler. Oh, who see mining engineer. He's been away
from here for over a year now. Yeah, here's another one,
Sam Pollard. Sam died six months ago. Hey what Noah
Baxter Baxter. Her name's vaguely familiar. Yeah, he owns a hotel.
You're staying in a couple of ranches too. He might
have been the one who tried to have you thrown out.
He also owns the Mayor young man about thirty thirty five.
Let's go see him. Another drive, this time north of
coveran of the Baxter ranch. We found Noah Baxter busy
with his help.
Speaker 2: Shoring horns on cattle, A lean, tall man with thin features.
Speaker 9: If you're trying to find out if I haven't seen
Pauline on the sly, why she'd been married to George, Why.
Speaker 5: Didn't you come right out now?
Speaker 2: All right? Have you?
Speaker 9: No? Not on the sly, there's nothing between us. George
knew anytime she came over here to see me. He
was a good friend of mine. I'm sorry he's dead.
Pauline's good friend of mine too, I'm sorry who people
are thinking what you are about us. Let's go up
to the house getting cold, all right, Stan, that's enough
for today.
Speaker 2: No, I got to ask you this. Where were you
last Thursday, the day George died?
Speaker 8: Sure?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was right here and you prove that.
Speaker 6: Sure, ask anybody you boys.
Speaker 9: Want to drink? No, thanks, noll I do mac mac.
I didn't get it myself.
Speaker 2: When was the last time you were in cover, mister Baxter?
Three four weeks ago?
Speaker 5: My cook and the others handled what supplies we need.
Speaker 2: You might have. We talked to some of your help
around here. What do you want to talk to him
about about last Thursday? About what happened when missus Henderson
came here to visit It wouldn't.
Speaker 5: Look good if she came here to visit me, would it.
Speaker 2: Well, that depends on the circumstances.
Speaker 9: No, she'd come and sit there and read and look
at some of those paintings.
Speaker 2: We'd talk when I had time. Anything wrong with that, No,
mister Baxter, I think I ought to tell you. I've
asked my company to file a complain against missus Sanderson
suspicion of murder.
Speaker 9: Oh, I'd like to tell you something. She didn't kill him,
and she didn't have him killed. She loved him a
lot more than George loved her. I think both of
you know her. Her dad was a drunken cow hand.
When he died, George took her over, gave her everything.
So you see, you're wrong. She loved George forgiving her
what he gave her, and mostly for being the kind
of a man he was. I a couple of minutes ago,
there was something between us. It was bound to happen.
Speaker 2: Sooner or later.
Speaker 9: She'd come here to cry on my shoulder, and ay,
I let her cry about George. He wanted to divorce her, didn't.
Speaker 8: You know that?
Speaker 2: I had the idea was the other way around.
Speaker 7: You're all wrong.
Speaker 9: George raised her, educated her, made her into a woman,
and then he married her, and she wasn't what he
wanted at all. You know who George wanted to marry
Mattie Knickerbocker, the school mark go on. Oh, there was
nothing between George and Mattie, but there would have been
if he lived.
Speaker 2: What about you and missus Henderson.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the thing that was between us was that I
wanted her. She didn't want me, but I wanted her.
I was glad when she told me about the divorce
coming up. I really think she would have listened to me.
But she wanted to be married to George.
Speaker 5: She really loved him.
Speaker 9: Sure you don't want one of these? No, Nope, And
I really loved her. I went to see George last
Thursday this hotel. You know why they tell him to
go back to Pauline. Yeah, cause I knew what he
meant to her. You can talk to my people around here.
They'd lie for me and say I was here last
Thursday all day. They'd tell you that Pauline never came
to see me. They'd lie right down the line for me.
But mister Dollar, I can't let you get out that
complaint and take her in. One of my trucks was
taking some beef to the hotel last Thursday. I rode
in with the driver and went in the back way.
I went right up to George's room to talk to him.
Pauline had just left. I wanted to talk to him
about the same things I've been telling you. I didn't
want to hurt him. I loved him the same as
everybody left him. When I got to his room, he
wouldn't let me talk at all. He was mad that
I interfered. He tried to swing on me. I shoved
him once he went out the window. That's all I
killed him.
Speaker 2: Expense account item eight fifty eight dollars and fifteen cents.
Hotel and food while in Culver, Montana. Item nine same
as Item two, transportation by train and playing back to
Hartford Item ten eighty eight dollars miscellaneous Expense account total
eight hundred and two dollars and fifty cents. Remarks we
still had to pay double indemnity Maddy Nickabacker, Pauline Henderson,
Noah Baxter. They'll pay another way with the hurt that
comes to nice people. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 4: Remember there'll be another exciting story beginning next Monday night.
Speaker 2: Next week, A real mystery, complete with plenty of action,
a beautiful blonde and a killer lurking in the shadows.
Join us, won't you? Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 4: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar is starring Bob Bailey, is transcribed
in Hollywood. Written by J Dawson, It is produced and
directed by Jack Johnstone. Heard in this week's cast were
Lillian baieff Irene, tedrow D, J Thompson, Herbellus, Marvin Miller
Forres Lewis, Bob Bruce and Russ Thorson. Musical supervision by
Amarigo Marino. Be sure to join us on Monday Night,
same time and station or another exciting story of Yours Truly,
Johnny Dollar. This is Roy Rowan speaking.
Speaker 1: Our presentation of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and the Henderson Matter,
Part five is complete. Follow Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar for
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